Te Wiki o te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week

Kia Ora Whānau

This week our country is celebrating Te Wiki o te Māori (Māori Language Week). At Te kura Ō Marshland - Te rito Harakeke, we celebrate Māori language everyday through karakia, waiata, our daily kōrero (conversation) and (mahi) practice. I’m proud to say that the reo is just part of our norm.

Perhaps this is an appropriate time to share with our community, the significance of our Māori school name - Te Rito Harakeke. In Māori culture, the harakeke (flax) plant represents whanau (family), the rito (the shoot), is the child. It is surrounded by the awhi rito (protective parents). The outside leaves represent the tupuna (grandparents or ancestors). At Marshland School, we embrace this concept and believe that the harakeke symbolises all of us (children, parents, caregivers, grandparents, school) as a whānau, working together for the good of our tamariki.

Last week, our Kapa Haka group were wonderful ambassadors for our school at the Cultural Festival. I would like to acknowledge the hard work that our tamariki have put in over the past two terms and also the quality tutorage of Mātua Te Huaki. I would also like to thank Paul Tyson, Lou Kidd, Wayne Joyner, Sarah Bussey and Amber Field for their support (supervision, photography). There were several moments throughout the day that resonated with me. The first, was seeing one of the cultural organisers delivering a special taonga (beautifully carved pounamu) from an uncle to his niece (Uncle Jayton to Tyler) to wear, moments before she went on stage to perform - a special gift to show that her whānau were there, to tautoko (support) her. The second, was to see our tamariki transition their nervous energy and deliver a confident performance with such conviction and passion - such a proud moment for both tamariki and their whānau. And finally, to look over and see our Marshland families in the audience, showing utmost respect and appreciation for the performance and extremely proud of their children for having the courage to get up there and represent their whānau and school.

The same can be said about last night, where 75 students from Marshland School performed in the Kids for Kids concert at the Horncastle Arena. We were so proud to have such a strong representation of dedicated & committed choristers, performing at an event like this. Many thanks to Lou Kidd and Taryn Woodham for supervising our tamariki and of course, a special thanks to Heather Libeau-Dow our music teacher, for preparing our children so well. A special congratulations to Ella Williams for her beautiful duet with well known artist, Jackie Clarke. As you can imagine, the selection process for winning a solo was very competitive and intense. Ella won the part from some very high calibre singers. Again, a proud moment for Ella, her family and Marshland School.

Have a great weekend everyone! Only two weeks to go!

Ngā mihi nui

Riki